Implementation Strategy

To use Web discussions with SharePoint Portal Server, it is recommended that you implement a specific strategy. After you identify your strategy, you must modify the Web discussions settings to match your deployment plan.

Considering Key Factors

To use Web discussions, you must consider the following issues:

• What servers in your environment are valid Web discussions servers?
• Do you want to enable Web discussions?
• Do you want to discuss documents that are stored outside the workspaces of the SharePoint Portal Server computer?
• Do you want users to search for and view discussion items on documents?
• Do you need to recommend a specific Web discussions server to your users?
• What variables affect your implementation of Web discussions?
• Are there any incompatibilities or troubleshooting issues that you need to address?

Modifying Web Discussion Settings for SharePoint Portal Server

The following section provides detailed procedures about how to modify the Web discussions settings for SharePoint Portal Server. You must specify these settings for each workspace on the server.

Enable or Disable Web Discussions of Items Stored Outside Workspaces

You can restrict Web discussions to items that are stored in workspaces on the SharePoint Portal Server computer.

To specify discussion settings for the SharePoint Portal Server computer:

1. In the console tree, select the server for which you want to specify Web discussions settings.
2. On the Action menu, click Properties,

   -or-

   right-click the server name, and then click Properties.

3. On the Other tab, click to select the Restrict Web discussions to items stored in workspaces on this server check box if you want to restrict Web discussions only to documents that are stored in workspaces on the current server. If you do not want to restrict Web discussions, clear the check box.
4. Click Apply.

Enable or Disable Searching and Indexing of Web Discussions Items

You can restrict searching and index crawling of Web discussion items.

To specify discussion settings for the workspace:

1. In the console tree, select the server that contains the workspace discussion settings that you want to specify.
2. Click to expand the server, and then select the workspace that contains the discussion settings.
3. On the Action menu, click Properties (you can also right-click the workspace name, and then click Properties).
4. On the Subscriptions/Discussions tab, click to select the Enable Web discussions in this workspace check box.
5. If you want to include discussions in the index and make them available for searching, click to select the Enable search and indexing of discussion items check box.

   Discussion items are not secured and may be visible to a user, even if that user does not have access to the document to which they pertain.

6. Click Apply.